Fighting Conviction by Greer Rivers

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Ellie didn’t need to look out the pantry doors to know the world was on fire. Heat from the flames seeped through the crack and Ellie fell back against the wall. There was no way out. The alcohol vapors wafted between the doors and a golden glow lit the small closet.

The light rested on Virginia’s deathly pale face. Her eyes were sunken in and her mouth was partly open. Blood outlined her shoulder as she laid down on the ground from the bullet wound still slowly seeping from her.

Tears streamed down Ellie’s cheeks and she coughed back emotion and fumes until a wail emptied from her lungs. She slid down the wall and silent cries wracked her body before she landed hard on the floor.

She’d thought she was going to break in half when Virginia had been shot and the investigator’s knee was on her spine back at the hotel. But as the air grew too hot to breathe, and the acrid smell of burning wood and linoleum filled her lungs, and her friend’s eyes fluttered open for maybe one final time…

Ellie broke.

Her best friend’s dark skin tone was nearly purple.

Her chocolate eyes glazed over. They closed.

Her body spasmed and went limp.

Ellie screamed silently against paralysis. There’s nothing I can do to save her. There’s nothing I can do to save her. There’s nothing I can do…

No.

Fuck. That.

Ellie forced her eyes open against the flashback, against the burning air, and against her fear.

“I’m getting us outta here,” Ellie told herself as much as she told her dying friend. Now to find an escape route.

Ellie lifted and looked outside, only to see a scene nothing short of hell. There was no way out of the pantry. She screeched and looked around but it was practically empty. Nothing but rice and cans from what she could see.

“Somebody help me!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, careful not to breathe in any more toxic air. She didn’t know how far away the Russian was, or if he’d even left the premises. But if the Russian grew a conscience in the next five minutes and was the one to save her, then so be it. She’d cross that bridge later.

“Somebody, please! Help me! Help us!” In an anguished yell, Ellie reached out to her best friend. “Sasha, please help me. What do I do?”

Ellie held her breath to listen, but there was nothing but the billowing flame outside the thin doors.

“Sasha! Help me, please! I don’t know what to do! Help me!” Crackling wood and plastic answered back. “Come on! Now you’re silent? When I need you?” she screamed again and threw herself down on the ground.

“Ow! Son of a—” Something hard poked Ellie’s butt and she leaned to the side but her body was in the way of the firelight. She leaned back to feel with her hands until her fingertips grazed over a metal loop.

“This house looks just like mine did, doesn’t it? Same layout and everything…”

“Except for the kitchen…” She reached back to her childhood and recalled the root cellar she and Sasha used to be obsessed with when they played manhunt. No one ever found them there because the entrance was a small trapdoor hidden in the corner of the kitchen.

“Holy crap, Sasha, you did it. Oh my God, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Ellie wriggled to her knees and whispered, “I can do this,” before crawling to Virginia.

“V, V. We gotta get outta here, and I have an idea. Please, can you help me? Does your right arm still work?”

The only sign of life Virginia gave was a nod downward. But awareness was all Ellie needed.

As gently as she could, Ellie pushed Virginia to her back. A low moan pierced Ellie’s chest with guilt, but she couldn’t stop to comfort her friend. Ellie bent her head low and into Virginia’s limp—but working—hand.

“Grab my bobby pin, V! Hurry!” Ellie shoved her head where she knew her bobby pin was against Virginia’s hand. Featherlight fingertips touched her hair and Ellie pushed her head farther into her friend’s hand. “Come on, V, grab it with your fingers. That’s all you gotta do and I’ve got the rest.”

There was a small tug at her hair and Ellie pulled away slowly, hoping her friend could keep a hold of the metal pin. When Ellie sat up, the blood rushed out of her head and she felt faint from the angle. But there it was, the small shiny piece of metal that would get them out of there.

Ellie swiveled around on her duct-taped legs and stretched her arms back to the point of pain until she finally felt Virginia’s hands. She found the bobby pin in her friend’s grasp and yelped with excitement. Careful not to drop the pin, she unbent it and hooked it between the arm of the handcuffs and its metal teeth to separate the mechanism from the ratchet.

“Remember… just… one…” click.

There was blessed relief in her left wrist before pins and needles shot up her arms. But she was free. Ellie laughed into a groan as she stretched her arms in front of her. Her groan turned into a cough as the heat burned her lungs.

“Gotta keep goin’.”

She helped herself up and stood tall, knowing this was about to hurt. The investigator had wrapped tons of tape on her bare legs. It would require all her strength and gravity to rip it.

“Okay, one. Two….” Ellie shook her hands and breathed, only to pull in more heat. “Three,” she coughed and collapsed cross-legged onto the ground, landing hard on her butt. She looked down at her free legs and pumped her fist in the air. They were red and the skin was abraded but she couldn’t feel it yet.

“Adrenaline. Gotta keep goin’.”

Something crashed outside the pantry door and the heat felt close to blistering her skin. Virginia coughed.

“Gotta go, gotta go.”

She got up and felt for the loop again she’d landed so hard on before. Her fingers searched and searched until finally, the cool metal was in her hands. She tugged, but it refused to lift.

“Oh, hell no.” Ellie bent her knees and leaned forward so she could fall back and pull with her entire weight. “One. Two…” She heaved and stumbled backward. The door was still in her hand and off its hinges.

Ellie laughed again, and part of her wondered if she was getting hysterical, while the other part of her told her to shut up and keep going. She looked in the dark abyss below and couldn’t see a dang thing.

“Oh!” She stood up and turned on the light she’d been afraid to turn on while the Russian was there. A wooden ladder showed their escape.

“Come on, V. We gotta go.”

Her friend’s eyes opened a fraction and she held her right hand open for Ellie. Ellie went into a squat and scooped her friend up by the armpits to drag her the few feet to the opening. It was only big enough for one of them at a time and she knew Virginia wouldn’t be able to do it herself.

“V? I’m gonna do my best, but whatever strength you’ve got, I need you to use it now, okay?”

“‘Kay,” Virginia whispered.

Ellie got behind Virginia’s back and started to drop her into the darkness, hoping it wasn’t too far of a drop. Fire licked through the crack in the doors and her skin felt tight from the heat, but she focused on the cool sheen of sweat trying to protect her body.

Inch by inch, she dropped Virginia until Ellie was half in the hole herself. “Okay, I’m gonna drop you!” She let go and there wasn’t a big thump, so Ellie counted that as a win.

A loud creaking moved the walls around her.

“Gotta go, gotta go,” she repeated and swiveled her butt around to descend legs first.

The ladder whined from age and Ellie reached for the pantry wall to gain balance. The drywall burned her fingertips and Ellie yelped, pulling them back. Her momentum slid her down the ladder all the way, and she hung on with one hand until she was able to regain her footing, somehow not rolling her ankle on her heels. Ellie righted herself and followed the ladder down four more rungs before feeling the ground beneath her.

“Whew that was—”

A loud crash above her shook the world, and dust fell in a cloud from the ceiling. Ellie jumped over Virginia and protected her in case anything fell. She stayed huddled over her friend until the dust literally settled and the debris stopped collapsing around her.

Heat scratched at the thin fabric of the back of her dress and Ellie hissed at the sting. She felt the urge to turn around, but knew it would only slow her down. Still, in her mind’s eye, she imagined fire falling down the ladder, chasing her. The floor was cement, so at least there wasn’t anything for the fire to catch on and escalate.

Except for them. Ellie had to work fast to keep from becoming tinder.

“Keep movin’.” Ellie pushed her hair back. She stood and breathed through her nose, trying hard to ignore the bitter burned plastic odor.

The only good thing about the fire being inches away from her was that it put everything else around her in stark relief and she found her escape. The cellar doors.

Ellie dodged a falling ember and pulled Virginia by her waist until they were both underneath the cellar door. She turned to the doors above her and pushed. Only to meet resistance.

“You gotta be kidding me.”

The ceiling was low where the door was flat with the ground, so Ellie stooped to get into a modified squat lift. When she was in position, she used her feet to push with all her might against the ground with her back against the door.

Nothing.

She thought about screaming for help, but the fire behind and above her was so loud, she was sure if anyone was dumb enough to be in or around the house, they wouldn’t be able to hear her.

Better to use all my energy where it counts.

Ellie pushed her back against the door again, groaning with the effort but showing nothing for it.

“One more Ellie, you got this. Just one more.” She moved back to the best position and counted. “One… two…” On three, she pushed and screamed with the effort. The weight of the door disappeared, throwing half her body out of the cellar. But she was on the ground. Free.

Hands scooped under Ellie’s armpits and she yelped. She fought and screamed against the arms until she realized they were broken wings wrapping her in an embrace. Soft lips crushed against her forehead.

“Dev?”

“Angel, oh thank God.”

Dev’s hold tightened and she swung her arms around his neck. She looked up from his tattooed wings to see a figure in the smoke.

Ellie whispered against Dev’s neck, not entirely sure who she was talking to. “You found me.”

He squeezed tighter and threaded his hands in her hair. “I found you, angel. And goddamnit I’m never losing you again.”

Cool air brushed against her face and lavender tickled her nose.

Ellie gulped and blinked back tears as she whispered again. “Thank you, Sash.”

“What, baby?” Dev stood up from his kneeling position. “We gotta get you outta here.”

Ellie watched as the figure melted away and two more appeared.

“Dude, let’s go. I don’t think this place is done blowin’ up.” Phoenix bent to pick her up but Dev snatched her away. That’s when she remembered she wasn’t the only one who needed saving.

“Virginia!” she yelled into a cough and pointed behind her. “Virginia’s in there.”

“Shit.” Hawk took two strides and hopped into the cellar feet first. He came back within a second carefully holding Virginia against his chest.

“Come on. Let’s get outta here.” Phoenix jogged into the smoke, leading the way.

Ellie reached her legs to the ground, only to have them wrapped up by Dev’s arm.

“If you think I’m letting you go after that you are out of your goddamn mind, angel.”

Ellie only nodded and returned her arms around his neck, taking in the soothing cinnamon she’d come to crave the past year. Dev ran them up a hill and Ellie watched the house as it collapsed even farther in on itself. Sirens and fiery winds filled the night.

The dark shadow figure formed in the new billow of smoke beside the house and Ellie blinked back tears.

Love you, Sash.

“Love you, too, El.”

A cool tear trailed down Ellie’s cheek as she said goodbye for what she knew in her heart was the final time.